1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to printers and printing systems. More particularly, the disclosure relates to an apparatus and method to determine whether to select media based upon comparison of a media signature identified in the media and a data stream signature identified in the printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet and laser printers have become commonplace equipment in most workplace and home computing environments. Today, many printers are multi-functional assemblies capable of printing on a large array of print media including letterhead, paper envelopes and labels. A recent innovation in the printing industry involves the manufacturing of print media with embedded radio frequency signatures in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders or tags. These tags, sometimes called “Smart Labels”, may be used with a variety of existing printing methods.
Embedded print media may include a backing material (sometimes referred to as the “web”) upon which a label is applied, with a RFID tag sandwiched in between the label and the backing material. There may be one or more labels on the web and the sheet, as presented, may be part label and part plain paper. In some cases, there may be more than one tag arrayed across the width and down the length of the media such that multiple columns and/or rows of tags are contained on the print media.
Printing labels on a cut-sheet printer such as a laser or inkjet printer may provide a relatively wide format that allows multiple columns of labels to be used. The use of multiple columns may improve the overall rate at which the labels can be printed. At the same time, because the customer can print more than one label for each sheet printed, the relative cost of each label is greatly reduced.
Accordingly, printing on media with embedded RFID tags is rapidly becoming a growing area of label printing. Each tag on a sheet can be printed with certain data, and the RFID tag embedded within that media can be used to allow individualized processing of user associated data. For example, a shipping label might have the delivery address and a package tracking ID printed on it, while the corresponding tag would be programmed with the same information. The delivery information may then be read from the tag, whether or not the package is positioned so that the tag is visible.
Current workgroup class laser printers often provide the ability to connect multiple input source devices (e.g., trays), and to support multiple types of media (e.g., paper, cardstock, labels, transparencies, etc.). The printer may be configured to assign or indicate the type of media in each tray. This method does, however, depend upon the user properly setting the media type for each tray in the printer (e.g., via the operator panel), and properly specifying the media type for the print job (e.g., via the driver).
Media embedded with RFID tags may present a unique problem, as virtually any media type (e.g., plain paper, transparencies, etc.) can have embedded tags, and otherwise identical media (e.g., labels) may have different numbers or arrangements of RFID tags. The relatively high cost of the media makes misidentification a relatively costly issue for the user, and the large variety of possible combinations of media types and tag number/arrangement makes a straightforward addition of new “media types” in the driver list relatively difficult.